


Language!

by CirrusGrey



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Humor, Steve Rogers is a little shit, Swearing, based on a headcanon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-16
Updated: 2018-06-16
Packaged: 2019-05-24 04:36:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14947712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CirrusGrey/pseuds/CirrusGrey
Summary: Tony doesn't know Morse Code. And Steve, contrary to popular opinion, actually swears quite a lot.





	Language!

**Author's Note:**

> Based upon a headcanon from my [Tumblr](https://cirrus-grey.tumblr.com/post/173686544519/so-ive-been-thinking-about-steves-language-in).

Steve, Bucky, Sam, and Tony were sitting around the kitchen table at the Avengers complex, having lunch. Both Tony and Bucky were on their phones, and Sam was reading a book. Steve had been drawing, but was now just staring out the window, unfocused.

He shook himself and picked up his pencil. Instead of resuming his drawing, he started tapping it quickly on the table. After a minute, Bucky picked up his fork and tapped back, still staring at his phone.

Tony frowned at them, but didn't really pay attention until Sam closed his book, grabbed a spoon, and joined in.

"Okay, what's going on here?"

"Hmm?" Steve said, glancing over.

"What's with the tapping? You're driving me crazy."

"It's Morse code, man." Sam said. "You don't recognize it?" he tapped out a quick sequence.

Tony blinked. Now that Sam had pointed it out, he _could_ here the slightly different lengths of the taps, and the pauses between segments. But only barely.

"Jeeze, you can actually understand it at that speed? More importantly: what's so secret that you're talking in code?"

Sam shrugged. "Certainly can't understand it as fast as Steve and Barnes can, but yeah."

"And currently we're making fun of him for coding slowly," Steve chimed in, grinning. "Though it's not really his fault, the military doesn't use it as much as they used to."

Bucky tapped a short sequence ( _long-short-short, short-long, long-short-short_ ) and Steve laughed.

Tony glanced at Sam, who was frowning. "'Dad'?"

Bucky snorted. "It's an abbreviation."

Steve nodded. "An inside joke from the Howling Commandos."

"Huh. What's it mean?"

"It's not a big deal. We used to have a lot of little codes like that, pass them around camp to kill time."

Tony had quietly opened a new app on his phone while this exchange took place, and started it just in time to catch Steve's next sequence.

_Long-short-short, short-short-long, long-short-long-short, long-short-long._

He glanced at the translation on his phone and read it aloud. "Duck." Then he frowned. "Wait, what?"

Sam shrugged, but Bucky was already tapping back.

_Long-short-short, short-short-long, long-short-long-short, long-short-long._

"Duck," Sam supplied, and Tony raised his eyebrows.

"What, again?"

Steve and Bucky were both grinning though, and started repeating the same sequence ( _long-short-short, short-short-long, long-short-long-short, long-short-long_ ) back at each other, faster and faster, until the translation app Tony was using couldn't keep up and just gave him an error message.

This went on for about a minute, with Sam and Tony becoming increasingly confused, until Bucky suddenly crowed in triumph and Steve threw down his pencil.

Sam laughed, thought he still looked confused. Tony was getting annoyed.

"Okay, what _was_ that?"

Steve chuckled. "We used to play coding games during the War. Code the same word over and over, fast as you can, and the first one to make a mistake loses. It helped us practice the language as well as blow off some steam."

Tony blinked at Bucky. "And you heard a mistake in all of that?" He turned to Sam. "And you? You seemed to know when Steve lost."

Sam was still laughing a little. "It was kinda hard to miss when he changed an entire letter."

"That wasn't actually the mistake, I'd blended two letters together right before that. That was part of the gentleman's agreement to come clean when you've lost. Change one pre-arranged letter to admit defeat."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Pre-arranged?"

Steve sighed. "Trust me, it was _not_ my idea to change the "u" to an "i". I got out-voted."

Tony laughed. "Wait, seriously? Did you just say dick? And I missed it? That must make you so uncomfortable."

Bucky joined in. "Oh yeah, he hated that. Was one hundred percent against using that to surrender."

Steve nodded. "I never understood why you guys wouldn't agree to my idea for a letter change. It was much better, much less offensive, and much easier to distinguish from the original letter."

"Yes, he never let that go. Wouldn't stop arguing about how the surrender should be changing the "d" to an "f" instead."

Steve _hmmed_ in agreement, and there was a brief moment of silence where both Steve and Bucky avoided each other's eyes and attempted to keep straight faces; then Sam and Tony processed what he had just said.

Sam burst out laughing hard enough to fall out of his chair; Tony's eyes widened.

" _WHAT?!?"_ he shouted. "Are you telling me Steve Rogers - watch-your-language-Tony-don't-say-shit Steve Rogers - was advocating the use of the word _fuck?!?_ "

Bucky laughed. "Really? Steve told you not to swear?"

"We were on a mission - "

Tony interrupted. "And I said shit! Just shit! Something bad happened and I said shit and he said - "

" _Language!_ " Steve said, severely.

Bucky snorted. "Yeah, watch your fucking language, Stark, there are children present!"

(Sam, who was attempting to stand up, collapsed over the back of his chair again, still laughing.)

Steve gave his response with a grin - from the tilt of his head and his theatrical delivery, it was clear this was a well-rehearsed script that had been passed back and forth many times before.

"Damn, Barnes, you kiss your mother with that mouth?"

"I been kissin' somebody's mother, but she sure as hell weren't mine."

Steve put a hand over his heart, dramatically wounded. "Call the police! Common decency’s been murdered!"

Bucky winked. "Told you I got I killer sense of humor, pal."

By this point, Tony was in a state of complete shock. "Uh... can someone please explain to me what's going on here?"

Bucky raised an eyebrow and made sure to exaggerate his accent when he spoke. "Brooklyn."

Tony blinked. "What?"

Steve grinned. "I grew up in Brooklyn, Tony. And then I fought in World War Two. I've just been having you on with the whole no-swearing thing."

"You - _what?!?_ "

Sam had managed to calm down at this point, and gave Tony a pat on the back. "Yeah, he swears a lot when you're not around. Never _this_ much, though."

Bucky laughed. "I'm surprised you were able to keep that up so long, Steve. I've never known you to refrain from swearing."

"Ah, I got an image to maintain. Gotta toe the line for all the kids that look up to me."

"Fucking saint, you are."

"Damn straight."

Tony bent over in his chair until his head hit the table, narrowly avoiding faceplanting in his lunch.

Steve leaned nearer. "Tony?"

"I'm just going to sit here for a while and rethink my entire life, okay?"

Steve patted him on the head. "Okay."

**Author's Note:**

> D.A.D. = Dumb Ass Decision
> 
> The Howling Commandos didn't always agree with the orders they were given...


End file.
